Mark Helfman, 2020 Noonie Nominee for Independent Tech Journalist

You know that feeling when you work really hard on something for really long and it feels like nobody really notices? Hacker Noon’s Annual Tech Industry Awards, the 2020 Noonies, are here to help with that. Nominate YOUR best people and products today at NOONIES.TECH. Speaking of the best people and products in technology, here’s a quick (and interesting!) intro to 2020 Noonie Nominee,Mark Helfman fromUnited State, who’s been nominated in the Future Heroes and Technology categories.

1. Which 2020 Noonie have you been nominated for?

Independent Tech Journalist of the Year

2. Tell us a bit about yourself.

I'm a Medium top writer for bitcoin and investing topics and publisher of the Crypto Is Easy newsletter. I also contribute commentary for CCN, The Startup, Blockchain News, Hacker Noon, CryptoWriter, and The Capital, and often appear among the most-viewed cryptocurrency writers on Quora.

My first book, Consensusland, explores the social, cultural, and financial challenges of a fictional country that runs on cryptocurrency. My second book, Bitcoin or Bust: Wall Street’s Entry Into Cryptocurrency, hit #2 on Amazon’s list of short financial reads. My newsletter, Crypto is Easy, offers unique perspective and insights about bitcoin and altcoins.

3. Tell us about the things you make / write / manage / build.

With everything I write, I try to look at the big picture. We're inundated with news but get little perspective. Lots of hype, not a lot of substance. When I offer my perspective, it reflects my understanding of history, politics, and economics and my experience in government, real estate, business, and private equity. I try to focus on people, not technology; trends, not news. On the surface, crypto is all about money. When you dig a little deeper, there are a lot of interesting nuances to discover.

4. What are you most excited about right now?

Despite all the tragedy, anger, and misfortune of COVID-19 and financial crises, cryptocurrency continues making progress and people are finally starting to notice. Momentum is building and major blockchain projects are producing real products and services. The industry seems on the cusp of breaking out.

5. What are you worried about right now?

Everybody struggling with COVID-19 and economic despair.

6. What's the most useful advice you've ever given somebody?

Easy money is slow money.

7. How has the pandemic changed your life and/or career?

COVID-19 has made it much harder to build my author platform and run my newsletter. With young kids and a working wife, COVID-19 restrictions make it very difficult to keep my day job while also writing and publishing about cryptocurrency. Not enough hours in the day, lots of very late nights! Yet I feel fortunate to have what I have; many have it worse.

8. If we gave you $10 million to invest in one thing right now, where would you put it?

Bitcoin

9. What's an opinion you have that most people don't agree with?

Bitcoin is not a speculative investment.

10. Which apps can't you live without?

iPhone Alarm and Calendar; Telegram; YouTube

11. What are you currently learning?

Decentralized finance

For much the same reasons Hacker Noon decided not to put good ideas behind pop-ups or paywalls — nor abuse your personal data to target you with creepy ads — we also decided that you don’t have to be a #thinkfluencer or have 50k followers on Twitter to earn the recognition that comes with a 2020 Noonie Nomination. NOONIES NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN ACROSS 5 CATEGORIES — technology, decentralization, software development, future heroes, and back to the internet, Blockchain — UNTIL AUGUST 12, 2020Make somebody’s day and nominate them to be recognized in the internet’s most independent and community-driven awards: NOONIES.TECH.